june 26th 2010

well...
things are going smoothly here, as smoothly as i could hope for in hinche, haiti. things seem to be flowing more and more easily. each week seems to be passing more quickly. understanding and speaking more creole helps sooo much, with everything...things can still be as difficult as always here, but having the ability to communicate...we take it for granted don't we? it makes a huge difference.
i have made a new friend here, who has become kind of my dance partner...it's so nice, having something else to look forward to...i never thought i would find salsa dancing here...but yes. we have been practicing together once or twice a week, and going out maybe once a week...the house where i live i have to return before 10pm, but...it's still nice to go out for a couple of hours...i hope it continues...
i am 4 months into my time here...still on the fence about whether to stay longer or not...the longer i am here, despite how bleak it was for the first 2 months, how difficult it is still on many levels, i feel myself habituating more and more...especially with the language barrier becoming less...i feel more like a part of things here, like alot of people know me, i have some people here i call my friends, i feel close to marthonie and the students...we'll see.
today i dropped into the hospital to visit a woman that i sat with on monday night...she is gone, 5 days later, her family took her away, to bring her to a witch doctor. she may die. on monday night she could barely breathe, her respe were very shallow and labored, more or less 60-80 resps per minute, breathing with alot of effort...i stayed with her, with my hands on her. there was nothing else i could do...i got a nurse up, she found a doctor, who said just to keep her upright...there was no oxygen at all in the hospital...nothing else to do for her...her lungs sounded congested, she was coughing alot from time to time...i was wondering if she had tuberculosis...her dx was severe anemia...yes her hemoglobin was about 4.6 or so...but she also had some kind of lung infection...the next day she was put on o2, in the "ICU"--which is just a room with 4 beds in it, nothing fancy...they did a chest x-ray and a TB test and HIV test...i don't know the results of the TB test yet...she was given a blood transfusion (250cc) and needed more but the red cross was out of blood...today she is gone...i hope they bring her back in before she dies...apparantly her family thinks that her sickness is a "sent" sickness (voodoo)--sent by someone out of jealousy...so they are taking her to someone who deals with healing those kinds of sicknesses...
today there was also a 25 week pregnant woman with eclampsia...she had already had convulsions this morning...placental abruption, fetal demise...on B/P meds but not on mag because her urine output was so little...
there havent been any really spectacular stories recently...normal births, the usual amount of severe pre eclampsia, women getting D & C's with no anesthesia, and some normal births...i always notice that when a woman is starting to push, whoever is in the room kind of descends upon her and starts to order her around, what to do, how to put her hands, how to push, how to breathe...it's annoying, because it doesn't help, it only takes away from the moms' confidence in themselves to push...the other morning this started happening with a nurse and the cleaning lady...i finally just asked them to please STOP talking to the mom...this mom was really fun, she was very vocal, yelling very loud but in a productive way, just following her body...she was very sweet...during her labor i sat with one of the students outside as she was walking around outside in front of us...it reminded me of the old days...labor sitting...how i miss seeing midwives labor sit...
the students are doing ok...they are trying...sometimes i feel more hopeful for them becoming skilled midwives and sometimes i have very little hope...but they have progressed, i have seen that in my time here.
every night i have worked recently i see that the dogs (yes there are dogs that live at the hospital and go in and out of the rooms...) push over one of the trash barrels and eat all the bloody stuff inside...it is so gross...the other night, every single time i walked past where the trash was, there was this really strong smell of blood...then as i rounded the next corner it smelled like old piss...that's just the way it is here...
that's about all...i'm thinking alot about the woman i sat with monday night, hoping that she will be ok...she is still so weak, i can't imagine her being moved around, off oxygen, etc...i'm pretty worried about her.
love you guys...
reina